Thursday, 16 August 2012

NCR African Curried Coconut Soup

Last night I needed easy for dinner. E was out, Sylvia was eating on go-slow and I was waiting to hear that a new niece had arrived. I found an impressive looking recipe for African Curried Coconut Soup with Chickpeas on Joanne's Eats Well With Others blog. She always manages to make heaps of vegies and protein look delicious. With tinned legumes, pre-cooked quinoa, and some kale from my mum's garden, this came together quickly.

I also added a few leftovers from the fridge and have tried to reflect this in the recipe. What is sometimes harder to reflect in writing the recipe is that I took some of bits and pieces out of the other ingredients to feed Sylvia. I gave her some of the cooked quinoa to try. She wasn't keen. Too strange? I was sneaky. I'd hang my head in shame if it hadn't been such an inspired move. I added some quinoa to some mashed potato and wholemeal flour to make amazing Tattie Scones. We all loved them. Great accompaniment to the soup.

Which brings me to the vexed question of soup. E likes to tease me that a spoon can stand up in my soup. When I first added all the ingredients (see second photo) I thought it was a really soupy soup. I put Sylvia to bed and came back to have my dinner and found that the soup had thickened and the spoon was indeed standing upright. So yes, I love soups that might well be stews in another kitchen.

Cook the quinoa by cooking in 1 cup water, bring to the boil and simmer about 20 minutes.

Heat olive oil in a stockpot. (I used a large saucepan which was a wee bit too small.) Fry onion, carrot and capsicum for about 10-15 minutes or until soft. Stir in garlic and spices for about a minute or until fragrant.

Add remaining ingredients except spinach. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Check seasoning and adjust to taste. Add baby spinach and cook another few minutes until spinach is wilted. Serve warm.

The flavours in this sound really nice, a lot of the African stew recipes I have seen include peanut butter which I'm not fond of. Sometimes I find that stew recipes are too watery and almost like soup, I much prefer thick hearty versions of both soups and stews. I love your photo of the spoon standing up!

I think I definitely have to call this a stew :-) But - whatever the name, it looks wonderful. I think my mum would love it too as she enjoys African flavours. I chuckled at the quinoa in scones too. Inspired indeed!

Thanks Kari - honestly it seemed to go from soup to stew to soup again - it was a chameleon so I thought I could call it what I wanted. I am not really clear about what are african flavours - but I am a dab hand at tattie scones

That pic of the spoon standing up is just hilarious (and the soup sounds brilliant too). I love big, thick, meal-in-a-bowl soups, especially vege-filled ones. But sigh, they are not very child-friendly, are they - or at least not with kids the age of yours and mine. Quinoa scones sound pret rad though, definitely going to check those out!

Thanks Lucy - it made me laugh to see the spoon standing up - though once I stirred it, it was more soupy. Unfortunately Sylvia does not appreciate such soups or stews but I hope she will one day (despite knowing a few people who hated soups right into adulthood). The quinoa scones were a great way to make the potato scones healthier - we often have mashed potato over for them but now I want to try with quinoa more

Thanks Cakelaw - seems the consensus is that thicker soups are best - I don't really understand watery soups but then again this is my dinner not a starter. Was nice to see the sun out after all the rain yesterday morning!

This sounds very good! A friend of mine recently brought me a serving of a vegan African peanut and tomato soup she made, and it was very good as well. I'm a fan of stews like that and look forward to autumn which is stewing time. :)

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.